Past Reflections: Part Five

"Just that," MirrorEyes answered. "You've heard
about Tyne, yes? She was like a sister to me. We grew up together, watched over
by our old adopted mother. Unfortunately..." his voice once again took on a
sad tone, "...we were separated. I promised to give her what she wanted when
we met again, and she said she would hold me to that promise. When she came
with a demand, I refused, and she killed me."

"Was it... that sword...?"

"No," MirrorEyes said, sounding indignant. "I
would have given her a sword, I would have given her any weapon possible. I
didn't care about those things... It must have been more. But I can't think
of anything else... I've tried so many times to understand... what would she
have done it for..."

I was surprised to see MirrorEyes looking away
sadly. Turning to catch a glimpse of his face, I was even more shocked to see
that it was strained, as if he was holding off the urge to cry. I had never
seen this side of MirrorEyes before.

I looked away, and the scene suddenly changed
again. The young Hisika was playing in the brook with MirrorEyes; Hisika looked
as if she were enjoying herself immensely, but MirrorEyes played with a little
reproach. Hisika urged him on playfully, splashing him and egging him on, while
the young Draik fumbled around clumsily.

"Come on, don't be shy!"

"I don't like swimming..."

"You don't like anything fun, do you?"

The young Draik didn't reply, and the Zafara
sighed, standing up from the water. "Oh well. I suppose it'll take a while for
you to get used to us?"

The Draik nodded quickly, and Hisika took him
by the paw. "Let's go back to the village, then. The others will be waiting
for us." While they walked back, the MirrorEyes standing next to me narrated.

"Hisika always tried to become friends with
me. She was a light user - when we first met, she healed my fatal wounds. After
that, she didn't let me have a moment's piece, but eventually, I was thankful
for that."

"How were you wounded in the first place?" I
asked, curious. MirrorEyes seemed to delve into his own mind for a second, finally
coming up with an answer, "The village we lived in was raided. Tyne and I were
separated from each other, and many were... well, you understand. I tried to
fight, but being as young as I was, I wasn't very useful." He sounded spiteful
of himself while saying this. "For all I know, that village is burned to the
ground."

"What happened to Tyne...?" I asked. MirrorEyes
sighed. "She was kidnapped by the bandits raiding the village, but I didn't
know then. I learned that later. But..." The scene changed again, this time
back to the village. Yalina was scolding the young MirrorEyes (who had seemed
to age slightly - maybe one or two years), who was holding a dead chicken in
his paw.

"That didn't belong to you. Why did you kill
it?"

"I was hungry."

"You know what to do when you're hungry! You
ask us for food, you don't steal from other people!"

"But you would've refused it! You said that
I wasn't allowed any more than my fair share! How am I to be condemned for a
crime if I only took my fair share from other people?"

His intelligence grew immensely over those
few years, I observed. The two pets argued some more, and Yalina, looking
unlike her ordinary, calm self, grabbed the young Draik and began spanking him
ferociously. "Here's your fair share of punishment, then!"

"Owowow, lemme go, you dumb witch!"

"Dumb witch? Ha, that mouth of yours won't get
you far in life, kid!" And with a final, loud spank, she finished punishing
him. "Just because Hisika acts like you're her play doll doesn't mean you get
to be a brat!"

Stomping off, the Aisha glared back one last
time, and the young MirrorEyes stuck out his tongue rudely. She ran back, looking
enraged, and whipped out her chain-sickle. The deadly weapon struck the ground
near the Draik with surprising force, and MirrorEyes was knocked down. The Aisha
stomped on his back and spat on him. "Respect me, I'm your older sister!"

"Why should I respect you when you treat me
like dirt?"

"Because," she said, sneering, and in that brief
moment looking like a mirrored image of Yubioke, "it's a custom around here
that girls are treated better than boys. If you have a problem with that, you
can answer to my Eclipse Driver." Holding the sickle up to his nose and nicking
it, she laughed. "And no one likes to answer to that, do they?"

The transparent MirrorEyes talked again. "Yalina
and I were never really good friends. We both grew up a little towards the end,
though, and in that time we became close siblings. She was a witch of darkness,
and her chain sickle, which she named Eclipse Driver, was famous for having
defeated a great many foes. If there was ever a female warrior, it was Yalina;
she was fearless and feared."

"Yubioke doesn't care about getting any stronger
than she already is," I said quietly, and MirrorEyes blinked at me.

"That sister of yours?" I nodded, and he thought
for a moment. Then he replied, "It's not a question of physical strength, more
that of magical power. Your sister does strike a remarkable resemblance to mine,
doesn't she? Maybe my legacy runs in your family..."

"For my family's sake," I said somewhat rudely,
"I hope not."

MirrorEyes didn't answer, and the scene changed
again. This time Mescasho was the one with MirrorEyes, but he was neither scolding
him nor playing around with him. The two were standing on a hill, with bows
in their paws, and arrows aimed. On the other side of the hill, two straw goal-posts
with targets drawn on them were standing. From a mere moment's glance, I could
tell that MirrorEyes had aged yet again - this time he was my age. He looked
more calm and controlled, but I could still see the young child who had robbed
chickens in his eyes. Mescasho looked a little younger than him, but you couldn't
tell... not with the air of authority he carried over the Draik. He was almost
as tall as MirrorEyes, but he looked far more serious.

MirrorEyes fired - the arrow whizzed across
the distance between them and the posts and landed a few inches away from the
bull's-eye. He kicked the dirt angrily, and Mescasho fired. This arrow zoomed
across the field and landed neatly into the center of the target. The two pets
walked forward and examined their goal-posts. MirrorEyes then looked at Mescasho's
mark and sighed. "I'm never going to be able to beat you at this, am I?"

MirrorEyes pulled the arrow from the target
and walked back to the other side of the field. "Slightly better isn't good
enough," he said, firing again and landing the arrow closer to the mark, but
not as dead center as Mescasho's. "Not if I'm going to fight alongside you guys
some day."

"Who knows if we'll ever have to fight?" Mescasho
replied, pulling his own arrow from the post and walking back. He pulled back
and fired, once again hitting the dead center. "We're a pretty peaceful village,
you know. We'll only have to fight if we're attacked."

"But I get bored of living the ordinary civilian
life!" the Draik exclaimed, firing the arrow. A breeze caught it, throwing it
off and making it land closer to the top of the post and further away from the
center. "I get bored... of living as if I were ordinary."

"You are ordinary," Mescasho pointed out, firing
another one and yet again sinking it into the middle. "But ordinary is a good
thing."

"No, it's not," MirrorEyes argued. "Not if you
want to make your way in life. You have to be better at what you do than other
people."

"You only think that because you look at it
the narrow way, MirrorEyes," Mescasho said, sounding disappointed. "We like
you how you are - normal. We're grateful that you're like that."

"But I'm not," MirrorEyes said, beginning to
sound like he was envisioning a future for himself. "When I'm completely grown
up, I'll be a... a warrior... or something like that..."

"Then I hope you never grow up," the Acara answered.
"We like you staying here, not running off and getting yourself killed."

"You don't understand," MirrorEyes half-snapped.
"I promised someone... a long time ago..." He was about to fire another arrow,
but instead he lowered the bow and sat down. His brow was wrinkled in thoughtful
confusion. "...I can't really remember, but I do know that it's important."

"Then you should try to remember it," Mescasho
said, "but you can do that later. For now, concentrate on staying with us until
you're 'grown up'..." Firing one last arrow, he landed it neatly in MirrorEyes's
bull's-eye. "...whenever that is."

This time the MirrorEyes next to me said nothing,
but it was easy enough to understand that Mescasho had played a good role at
being the brother. Even though he was younger than MirrorEyes, he had been a
good teacher. MirrorEyes seemed to read my thoughts, and he nodded. "He was
the best of brothers."

The scene changed yet again; this time it was
loud and noisy. Pets ran to and fro, fighting each other violently with swords
and other weapons. I felt a little nervous and instinctively wanted to defend
myself, but MirrorEyes shook his head. "Remember, they can't see us."

That still didn't make me feel much better when
a spear ran right through my side, whizzing harmlessly through me. I felt my
stomach turn just a little. MirrorEyes ignored my stunned expression, looking
towards the battle with an expression of misery. He floated in a different direction,
and I followed, swaying unsteadily.

The noise of battle seemed to fade away, and
two small voices penetrated the dim roar. "Remember to come back for me!"

Another one answered, this one being vaguely
familiar. "I promise I will! Take the women and run - I'm gonna fight with my
dad!"

"You're just a kid, MirrorEyes. You can't expect
to fight..."

"I'm gonna make the whole village proud of me!
Now go!"

I finally saw them - two small children, one
the very young form of MirrorEyes, and one, a small, fragile black Zafara. MirrorEyes
hugged the girl, then ran in my direction. I got a flash of her face as she
looked at his retreating figure... her eyes were blood-red. I felt the urge
to flinch back, but when I got a closer look, I saw shine glistening in her
eyes. She was... crying? I looked at MirrorEyes, catching his gaze, and my expression
must have asked him the question. He nodded. "That child... that's Tyne."

I couldn't read the expression on his face.
It looked pained, spiteful, guilty, miserable, and hateful all at the same time.
His voice held a bittersweet sound to it: "She was... my best friend." I stared
at the child, sitting amidst the terrible battle that was raging around her,
tears falling from her blank eyes. She sat still, as if she were still shocked.
Then she limply sank downwards, pressing her face into the ground. I could hear
a few sobs echoing in the distance. "Don't leave me alone..."

Then the girl screamed. I gasped as the figure
of a Wocky scooped her up, ignoring her screams for a moment, then getting fed
up with it and smacking her roughly over the skull. The cries of battle rang
on, and no one seemed to notice that the young Zafara was being carried away
by the Wocky. I wanted to bolt after him. She was just a child... maybe if this
happened, she wouldn't end up like... Starting after her, I was stopped by MirrorEyes.
He shook his head. "It's already happened. You can't change that."

"But, I..."

"If I could change it, I already would have.
Don't anticipate me for a fool." Listening to him, I could hear a little sadness
in his voice. He disliked this just as much as I did, if not more. He deserved
to dislike it more. The girl who was being carried away would soon return and
put a dagger in his side. As the battle scene faded from my vision, I could
only feel empty... something bad was going to happen...

The noise once again ringing through my ears,
but this time the setting was different. Pets were crying out frantically as
a fire blazed through the scene. It was... MirrorEyes's new home village. I
watched in horror as the fire blazed about rapidly, destroying things at an
unusual rate. Pets threw water at it, but the liquid evaporated upon getting
close to the blazing flames. Many were already treating others who had acquired
terrible burns.

I looked to MirrorEyes for any narration, but
I found that he wasn't there. I looked around fervently - I couldn't lose my
way here! Where was he? "MirrorEyes!" I called out. "Where are..."

"MirrorEyes!"

I whirled in the direction of the voice... one
so familiar that I had to jump at the sound. It had mutated since moments ago...
what had once been an innocent child's voice was now cold and malicious. I saw
her... Tyne. She was standing in the clearing, her rage fixed on something only
yards away from her. I looked to see MirrorEyes - he had only caught on and
wasn't prepared for her. A bow was slung over his back, and arrows were in a
quiver, but he hadn't drawn the bow. The dagger was suddenly flying through
the air, creating a deadly hum...

I tried to run in the way. It had to work, it
had to work... I hardly knew anything about this situation, but after just watching
all these things happen, I knew that it couldn't happen. "Wait, don't!" I cried,
running in the way of the dagger. Please stop it... I begged to no one
in particular. Please, this shouldn't have happened...

The dagger flew harmlessly through me and struck
MirrorEyes in the side. I heard him gasp out, then I heard his breath quicken.
I was stunned; I couldn't turn around and see him in his last moments. Tyne
sauntered over to him, passing through me without a second look, and interrogated
MirrorEyes. I couldn't see it, but I could hear her every word... it was the
exact same from the dream I had experienced only nights before. I couldn't look.
I didn't want to see MirrorEyes as weak... I had always imagined him as the
dominating form, but this, I couldn't understand.

Something strange had happened to Tyne during
those years of being separated from MirrorEyes. I didn't know what, but I needed
to find out. Although the first thing I would need to do would be to get out
of this nightmare... MirrorEyes's nightmare.